NEWS

ISR Bernard Connor Medal 2017

The Irish Society for Rheumatology (ISR) has established the Connor Medal to encourage medical student participation in rheumatology during their undergraduate education and to support student engagement with the activities of the Irish Society for Rheumatology, including sponsorship of student attendance at the ISR Annual Scientific Meeting.

The award is open to all students of medicine who fulfil the eligibility criteria below. In addition to receiving the Connor Medal, the winner will be invited to attend the annual scientific meeting of the ISR to present their work to the membership, as a guest of the society. Additionally, and at the discretion of the judging panel, up to two runners-up may be awarded full registration to attend the ISR annual scientific meeting.

Bernard Connor The Connor Medal is named in honour of Bernard Connor, an Irish physician who observed and described the characteristic skeletal and clinical features of Ankylosing Spondylitis in 1693, while himself a medical student in Paris. This award will be made annually on the basis of competitive submission.

Submission Categories

Eligible students are invited to submit original work in one of the following three categories. Only one submission per student will be accepted.

1. Original Research Please submit your original research (e.g. clinical, laboratory, epidemiology etc.) as an abstract in the usual scientific format plus a short section on your observation/interpretation of the work: the abstract should be subdivided into Aim, Methods, Results & Conclusions. The text of the abstract must not exceed 250 words (excluding title, authors, and any references). One supplementary figure or table may be provided as an attachment for illustrative purposes.

2. Essay Examples of such work might include a review of a clinical or scientific topic in rheumatology; a reflective essay on your experiences of rheumatology as a medical student or other original writing which addresses the theme of medical observation in rheumatology. (max 1500 words)

3. Case Report These should be submitted in full form and present the details of an interesting case followed by a discussion on your observations of the key points of interest. These should be submitted in full (max 800 words, concluding with summary key message).

Eligibility

1. Applicants must be fully registered students of a Medicine Programme (MB degree) in an Irish University (NUIG, QUB, RCSI, TCD, UCC, UCD, UL) on April 1st 2017

OR

2. Irish citizens who are fully registered students of an MB programme in a university outside Ireland on April 1st 2017 3. Original work submitted must have been carried out while a student of Medicine (i.e. not during a prior degree, course of study or period of employment) 4. Applicants must submit completed entries to the ISR by the notified deadline 5. In the case of original research, applicants must have made a significant contribution to the work submitted and this must be verified by the supervising academic/ rheumatologist who shall co- sign the application form

How to Apply Download the Application Form for the Connor Medal, from the ISR website: www.isr.ie, fully complete the form, and return together with your submission to [email protected]

Closing Date 28 July 2017

Judging Criteria The Medal will be awarded according to the criteria below which will be applied to all submissions in all categories.